What is Photo Optimization?
Images on your webpage can affect your search engine results just like your content can. We don’t want our search results to appear lower because we didn’t take the few simple steps to optimize our photos.

There are a few simple ways to optimize your photos.

  1. Compress your photo files. Images often account for most of the downloaded bytes on a web page and also often occupy a significant amount of visual space. As a result, optimizing images can often yield some of the largest byte savings and performance improvements to your website. 
    1. Use your preferred image-editing software to reduce the resolution of the image to 72 PPI (pixels per inch). 
    2. Then run the file through an image compressor. Compressor.io is a great option. 
  2. Don’t use slideshows whenever possible. Slideshows use multiple, large photo files. User research shows that viewers rarely cycle through an entire photo slideshow and the large files bog down the load time of your webpage.
    1. If you already have a slideshow in effect:
      1. Email support.marcomm@atu.edu with a request to change a banner slideshow to a single-image banner. Please include the webpage URL and the URL of the photo you would like to include as the single-image banner. Photos can be view at https://photos.atu.edu. 
    2. If you are creating a new webpage:
      1. Check yes in the box that says “Show Banner”
      2. Choose "Editable Content" in the Banner Type drop-down.
      3. Insert a "Card" snippet in the banner region
      4. Place your image in the Card snippet's image section
      5. Save & Publish the page
  3. Choose a relevant photo. If I went to a website that was about cats, I would expect to see photos of cats. It wouldn’t make sense if I saw photos of cars instead.
    1. Please note that uploading a picture of a student or of students is not relevant enough. You need something else in the picture to make it obvious what your webpage is about.
    2. Think about the name of your office or department. What images come to your mind as you think about this name?
    3. Choose an image based on what you imagined. Make sure that it’s appropriate for your webpage.
    4. If it’s not relevant, it’s okay not to use a photo.
  4. Name your photo. It’s easy to add photos to our computers and then upload it on our website without renaming them. However, it is important that we name our photos using keywords.
    1. Example:
      1. The wrong way: screenshot_000235698.jpg
      2. The right way: Homecoming_Queen_2019.jpg